www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 180.211.172.164 on dated 1-Aug-2017 124 IndianJournals.com A product of Diva Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. Quest - The Journal of UGC - HRDC Nainital Volume 11, Issue 2, May-August 2017 : 124-134 DOI: 10.5958/2249-0035.2017.00017.1 1,3 Associate Professor, 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh (*Corresponding author) email: *zakariacu@gmail.com, 1 asgar@cu.ac.bd, 2 rezaulkarim@cu.ac.bd An Exploration of Factors Promoting Male Involvement in Women’s Antenatal Care in Bangladesh Mohammad Ali Asgar Chowdhury 1 , Rezaul Karim 2 and Muhammad Zakaria 3 * ABSTRACT In Bangladesh’s perspective, male involvement is inevitable in ensuring wives’ antenatal care (ANC) to promote safe motherhood as men are often the key decision makers regarding women’s reproductive health matters in the orthodox society. The present study aims at exploring the factors that promote men’s participation in receiving healthcare of pregnant women. Data of the study were collected from 189 married women aged 15–49 years from both rural and urban areas of Chittagong division through structured questionnaire. Bivariate analyses from chi-square test (χ 2 ) were run to see the association between men’s involvement in ANC as the dependent variable with various socioeconomic and behavioural variables of respondents and their husbands. Besides, odds ratio with 95% confidence interval from logistic regression was applied to identify the factors related to male involvement in receiving healthcare and services of their pregnant wives. The results imply that husbands’ related predictors associated with their involvement in ANC are: men’s secondary education (Odds Ratio, OR = 4.85, 95% Confidence Interval, CI: 1.20– 19.68), higher secondary level (OR = 6.11, 95% CI: 2.03–27.26) and graduation (OR = 7.57, 95% CI: 4.48–44.10), service (OR = 6.80, 95% CI: 1.03–46.19), knowledge on reproductive health (OR = 4.74, 95% CI: 2.85–11.27), positive attitude towards family planning (OR = 13.60, 95% CI: 2.93–62.80) and communication on reproductive health issues with neighbours, relatives and friends (OR = 5.72, 95% CI: 1.55–21.11). Moreover, variables belonging to wives that determine their husbands’ participation in ANC include women’s access to print media (OR = 4.52, 95% CI: 1.09– 18.73) and their interaction in a social network on reproductive health topics (OR = 3.76, 95% CI: 1.12–12.69). KEYWORDS: Antenatal care, Bangladesh, Cognitive and behavioural factors, Male involvement, Men’s participation, Reproductive health, Socio-demographic variables INTRODUCTION Antenatal care (ANC) is the reproductive health services that a mother receives during her pregnancy is crucial for the sake of maternal and child health. It is estimated that globally about 795 women die each year from complications of pregnancy and childbirth [United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 2014; World Health Organization (WHO), 2014]. Insufficient ANC, both in the respect of quality and coverage, is associated with undesirable pregnancy outcomes (Fagbamigbe and Idemudia, 2015). The natal complications are the leading cause of death for reproductive-age women for some countries, whereas pregnancy-related complications cause one-quarter to one-half of deaths among women of reproductive age in the developing countries (Royston and Armstrong, 1989). Globally, thousands of women suffer serious ailment, including pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic pelvic pain, incontinence and infertility, caused by pregnancy or associated complications (Fortney and Smith, 1996). During women’s pregnancy, a husband can lend a hand to wife in getting sufficient ANC, which may lead to arranging for transportation and bill to pay for her visits. He may take the opportunity to be informed about the symptoms of pregnancy-related complications through accompanying her on the antenatal visits. Men can assist